Rail bender



Oct. l; 1940. o, BECKER 2,216,152

RAIL BENDER Filed sept. 9, 19:57

Patented oci. 1, 1940 2,216,152

UNITED? STATES PATENT oFFicE s RAIL BENDER i Lester 0. Becker, St. Louis, Mo., assigner to Joseph Pavelka,.St. Louis, Mo. i

Application September 9, 1937, Serial No. 162,971 2 Claims. (01153-38) The invention relates to rail benders and conit will force the screw head and rail to the posisists in novel means visibly indicating the extent tion indicated'by broken lines in Figure 1. to which such a device has been operated. A Din 9 0n the Iea Portion Of SCreW 3 slides In using rail benders it is frequently desirable in a slot l provided n the screw socket 4 and,

5 that successive rails be bent to the same extent when the head oi the screw is not engaged by a `5" so that the degree of curvature of the rails may rail, Din 9 holds thefSereW aga-inst rotation and be substantially uniform. The usual method of limits its Outward InOVement. AS the bin InOVeS determining when a second rail has been bent along slot IIJ it comes abreast of successive markto the saine degree as the'previously bent rail, ings II on the exterior of the housing, theeby 10 is to lay the railsl on top of each other 01- 1-,0 bend indicating the extent to which the screw head 10 the rail in the bending device until the rail meets has moved outwardly from the frame and, acmarkers which have been set up for that pur- Cordngly, tbe degree to Which the rail has been pose. bent, hence when an operator has bent one rail The principal object of the present invention until the screw pointer 9 reaches the 3 mark is to provide Visible indicating means in the on the scale, and the rail is then deemed bent 15 bending device itself, whereby the extent to which to the desired extent, it is a simple matter for the rail has been bent may readily be determined the operator totelrnnate the bending of sueoeedby the operator without comparing the end poring rails with the pointer 9 at the same point tions oi the rail with another rail or marker. on the scale. This will result in such rails hav- Again it may be desired to maintain a known ing approximately the same degree of curvature 20 variation in the degree of bending o successive and this will be true irrespective of the fact that rails and it is another` object of the present inthe rails may POSSeSS Sufficient elasticity to spring vention to facilitate such relative bending oi difback somewhat after they have been bent. ferent rails, Itis desirable, although not essential, that the These and other detailed objects of the invenelongated slot I9 be Closed, except at the point 25 tion, as will appear from the following descrippin 9 IJIOjeCtS, to InninZe the amount of dirt tion, are attained by the structure illustrated entering the screw-receiving Socket 4. For this in the accompanying drawing, in which: purpose there isL provided a closure plate l2, slid- Figure l is, in part,` av top View and in part a able about the inner Wall of socket 4 and having section through arail bender with a rail in posia slot I3 disposed at an angle to slot I0, As 30 tion therein, the bending of the rail being indiscrew 3 and-pin 9 travel along socket 4, plate cated in broken lines; I2 will be rotated by the pin so as to accommodate Figure 2 is a front elevation of the same structhe latters travel and at the same time maintain ture; the remainder of the slot closed. Figures 3 and 4 are cross sections taken on the In the Inodeaton illustrated in Figures 5 35 Section lines 2 ...2 and 3...-3y respectively, 0f Figand 6 the SCIEW Socket I5 has IlO SlO 11'). tS Side ure i; corresponding to slot Ill, but there is an open- Figure 5 is a detailed section corresponding to ing l5 in the Te?? end 0f the Soeket and n flat the right hand portion of Figure 3 and illustrat- SW1P n bent mbo' a' I lehcal nbbon: prolects ing a. moded form of the invention, and through open1ng I6 and into an elongated recess 40 Figure 6 is an end view of the structure shown s provided in Screw i9' A plate 2n on the end i mme 5 of screw I9 has a restricted rectangular opening for strip II and as screw I9 is moved outwardly apay Cnmtlevgdgw zsutsltle tg: and inwardly of the socketit will rotate the helje ical ribbon. A pointer 2l on the end of strip I'I 45 aflgfed to www@ the head Pf a ral? R' A Screw is thereby rotated about the axis of the strip and w1s Journalled 1n asocket 4 1n a cylindrical hous- Screw to travel over a graduated scale 22 p1.0 ing formed at the middle portion of the body vided on a plate 23 apphed to the Outer end of and a nut 5, threaded on screw 3, is positioned in socket member |5, It will be noted that Screw a recess i5 in the body, and has an antifrction I9 has no rotary movement (due to the engage- 50 bearing unit 'II seated against one side of the rement of its head with the rail head similarly to cess. The latter mentioned parts form a jackthe head 8 oi screw 3) but, like screw 3, moves like structure for applying pressure through the in and out when a nut corresponding to nut 5 is screw head 8 to the inner face of the rail head inrotated. termediate jaws 2, whereby, as the nut is rotated, Obviously, this form of the invention func- 55 tions similarly to the arrangement previously described and the operator may duplicate successive operations of the bender as desired.

With either form of the invention the relation between successive movements of the screw may be determined by comparing the readings of the indicator. If desired, the scale markings may indicate inches or quarter inches of movement of the screw head, but this is not material. The markings may be purely arbitrary and not expressive of units of measurement.

The invention is shown applied to a preferred form of rail bender, but it will be understood that the general concept is applicable to other types of benders and also that the details of the indicating device may be changed substantially from that shown without departing from the spirit of the invention. The exclusive use of such modifications as come Within the scope of the claims is contemplated.

I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, a frame including a hollow socket member, a pressure applying bar movable lengthwise in said socket member, there being a slot in' the side of said member, a cover plate for said slot and having a slot disposed at an angle to said member slot and intersecting the same, and a pointer on said bar projecting through both of said slots and movable along said first mentioned slot to indicate the extent of movement of said bar and to slide said plate over said first-mentioned slot to keep all of the latter covered except where said pointer projects.

2. In a device of the class described, a frame including a hollow socket member of curved cross section, a pressure-applying bar movable lengthwise in said socket member, there being a slot in the side of said member, a cover plate of curved cross section for said slot and received within the socket member and having a slot disposed at an angle to said member slot and intersecting the same, and a pointer on said bar projecting through both of said slots and movable along said first-mentioned slot to indicate the extended movement of said bar and to slide said plate over said rst-mentioned slot to keep all of the latter covered except where said pointer projects.

LESTER O. BECKER. 

